New-home sales top 500,000 in August, highest since 2008

Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased 18% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units in August, the highest level in six years, according to newly released data by the U.S. Census Bureau. Regionally, new home sales rose 50% in the West, 29.2% in the Northeast and 7.8% in the South. Sales were unchanged in the Midwest. “This robust level of new-home sales activity is a good sign that the housing recovery is moving towards higher ground,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe in an NAHB release. “Historically low mortgage rates, attractive home prices and firming job and economic growth should keep the housing market moving forward in 2014.”